Anwar Uddin says he can’t help but sound like John Still when he gives his Glebe team-talks as he paid tribute to the retiring Non-League boss.
Uddin was Still’s Dagenham & Redbridge captain when the Daggers won promotion into the Football League and then up to League One.
Still announced his was stepping away from the dug-out last week to become Barnet‘s Head of Football.
In Sunday’s NLP, Glebe boss Uddin – who is also Diversity & Campaigns manager at the FSF – looks back at what made Still so successful.
“Football is an addiction so working in Non-League complements my job,” Uddin said. “I’ve been a manager under lots of top class managers and you take things.
“It’s funny, if someone who has played with me or under Stilly hears my team-talks they’d probably say I sound like him.
“You end up saying, ‘Never too high, never too low’. All the things he said hit the spot and resonated with me so I’m going to recycle them.”
And Uddin says Still had a knack for making players feel ten foot tall.
“I’m not joking, John Still made me feel invincible,” Uddin said. “I wasn’t a player gifted with skill. Although I’d come through West Ham, I was basically the player who looked after Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe – let them play and I’d kick everyone else so they could do that.
“But he made me feel so much better than I actually was. I was going into games believing I was the best centre half in the league and I’m going to lift the title at the end of the season.
“When you look back, he did that to all the players at our club. He doesn’t do it collectively. It’s the individual conversations, it’s the phone calls, pulling you into his office and telling you how good you are.”
